I recently upgraded my desktop because my old computer just couldn't handle editing HD clips in my Studio 12 Plus. Before buying, I checked the specs and requirements for S12 to be sure. Well my new computer is having many problems too! It is an HP 500-424 with Windows 8. Before I list the problems, I thought it best to see if, in fact, I have it installed and set properly.  I didn't use an install disc. Instead I transferred the files from my old PC to the new one - I wanted to be sure to retain all the premium content, patches, updates etc that I had added over the years. I suspect this was wrong. When I open Task Manager to see if anything else is running that may be slowing me down, it lists that "Pinnacle Studio 12.1 34 bit" is the only program running. Well this new computer is 64 bit. I don't know what these mean but could that foul things up?  If I decide to uninstall and reinstall from the disc, how do I get it up to date? (The disc actually says Studio 12.0 and I am using 12.1 Plus.)

 

Aside from that, here's what's happening: 1. Adding HD clips (AVCHD files from my camcorder) works fine, but editing them is awful. When playing back in preview, the audio is out of sync with the video, and when you click on a clip it takes 15-20 seconds for the image to appear in preview. Clicking PLAY takes several seconds before it plays. 2. Splitting, deleting, moving clips seem to happen instantly, but I have to wait 20-30 seconds before I can do the anything else. 3. The scrubber gets locked on a particular frame and I can't position it anywhere else in the project. 4. The preview window drops down about one inch and then covers the tools that are below it (Cut, Trash, Play functions.) 5. Program "Not Responding" often, requiring program to be shut down the re-opened. 6. After burning an AVCHD disc, the disc stutters, audio jumps when scene changes, last frame of a scene freezes before next scene. Suggestions? Thanks in advance. Help from the experts over the years has been greatly appreciated!!  

Transferring your files from one computer into another was a bad choice (Studio 12). You need to install the program using your discs and when done just register it with the same email address you used and then you can regenerate the activation keys and get all your premium contents you had.

As for the patch maybe jjn or someone else may appear and give you the site where you can download it (and save it somewhere in your computer for future use).

You may also want to purchase Studio 15 Ultimate either on ebay or Amazon. You might find one kind of cheap or you can use the newer version of Studio 18 but be aware that this program is a lot different from Studio 15 or previous versions and you may need plenty of practice and patience to get the hang of it.

Patch can be found here (thanks to jjn).

I still can't understand how you managed to install a software by simply copying/pasting files from a computer to another one. Many keys are written in Windows registry during installation that couldn't be written with "your method". And Pixies ?

Thanks for the reply. After I posted I realized there was one thing I described incorrectly. When installing S12 to my new desktop, I DID NOT actually transfer files from the old computer. I actually clicked on a link that was provided to me by a forum expert when I needed to do an uninstall / reinstall last summer. I did this for the reason I stated, to retain the patches, premium content, etc. Does this change your reply in any way??? My concern is that this is a Windows 8.1 / Studio 12 compatibility issue and not an install issue. Thanks again!

 

 

 

But what file did you get with this link ?

Yes, I think Studio 12 and Win 8.1 will not be best friends.

There's Irony! The main reason for getting a new computer was because I was having difficulty editing with Studio 12 with the old one! Is there any patch / fix for this??? The link was for a Studio 12 install where I entered my email and got all my purchased content installed. Thanks for the note.

steveromo:

Is there any patch / fix for this???

A patch for what ? For PS12 to work with Win 8.1 ? No, there's not.

saby:

Yes, I think Studio 12 and Win 8.1 will not be best friends.

My desktop PC has Win8.1 64 bit and Studio 12 Ultimate (with 12.1 patch) does appear to run OK on it (from what light-weight things I have tried. FWIW it was a completely clean installation, starting from Win8.1 having been "reset to factory defaults" - I installed PS12 Ultimate + its extra plugins and used the content transfer wizard to bring in a few older plugins from PS10 and PS11.

Just tried loading up an AVCHD clip and playing with it in PS12's edit window - the clip thumbnail was a little sluggish to appear, but I can preview the clip OK (and in the video/audio preferences I have turned background rendering off). PC has a fairly modest Intel quad-core Q9650 and its graphics are Nvidia GT640 with 2GB dedicated, 340.52 driver. BTW, in PS12/14 to edit AVCHD video does require a quad-core processor (in a new Intel-powered PC that would be a high-end Core i5 or any Core i7).

So I don't think that there's any generic incompatibility with Windows 8.1 - but of course it is an "unsupported" configuration; if it works, good, but if it doesn't, there won't be any support other than here in the forum.

Poor performance of the user interface might be caused by a graphics card/driver issue - what graphics does that PC have, and are the drivers up to date? Also, if it is an off-the-shelf PC rather than a self-build, has the manufacturer installed tons of unnecessary "crapware" that might gobble up resources and potentially interfere with Studio's working?

Regards,
Richard

steveromo:

Well my new computer is having many problems too! It is an HP 500-424 with Windows 8.

I had a look at the spec of that machine - and it appears to be a very low-energy model (CPU TDP rated 15 watts and with built-in graphics). So that CPU is likely to be very weedy and lacking in horsepower, despite what seems on the face of it a reasonable clock speed (2GHHz) and being quad-core!

Try running the "Check 3D Server" application (Programs | Pinnacle Studio 12 | Tools | Check 3D Server). It will take a long time, but should finish with a summary screen telling you whether it thinks your PC is up to scratch. It also generates a detailed log file that you can find in C:\Users\Public\Documents\Check3D.txt. If Check3D reports that your PC is not capable of real-time HD playback, then you will simply be unable to get a smooth editing experience with HD material... if you were sold that machine on the basis that it could edit HD video, then take it back and get a refund or upgrade to one that is...

I didn't use an install disc. Instead I transferred the files from my old PC to the new one - I wanted to be sure to retain all the premium content, patches, updates etc that I had added over the years. I suspect this was wrong

A simple copy of files from one computer to the other cannot possibly result in a properly configured installation; as Saby has mentioned, there is a ton of stuff that also needs to go in the Windows registry. But if you used some third-party tool that allows to move applications and files from one PC to another, such a tool might work. But if some settings weren't copied correctly, it could take ages to track down. So IMO a clean installation from the software CDs is to be preferred (so you are not at the whim of any potential bugs in the "software moving" tool)!

Another reason why I chose to do a completely clean installation here was to control what I installed; there was some old premium content that I had purchased way back that I do not need/use any more, so I decided not to bother reiinstalling it and save a few MB of disc space.

FWIW I have attached a screen shot of the summary screen from "Check 3D Server" - if all is well on your PC you should get something similar.

Regards,
Richard

"The main reason for getting a new computer was because I was having difficulty editing with Studio 12 with the old one".

I have been running Studio 12 on my old XP desktop (which is over 5 yrs old) and have never had any problems with it. When my computer starts acting weird I just reprogram my whole computer again and it is like new again. If you are having problems with hardware I would replace them too. 

Thanks for the replies. I have some work to do, then I will post back what I've found!

Here's the results of the 3D check:

Graphics Card: AMD Radeon R5 Graphics

Graphics driver: aticfx32.dll - 8.17.10.1267

Driver qualification: Newer than qualified

Overall rating: / SD playback / SD & video IO: Passed

HD Playback: not real time

On Validation: failures have occurred.

...So give it to me straight Doc... how long do I have to live? Seriously, can I edit and burn in HD?

Or... Can I edit in one format then render and burn in AVCHD. I don't care how long it takes to render. I usually do that overnight anyway. But editing in HD with the current setup is tedious.  

Thanks for the replies.

 

 

steveromo:

So give it to me straight Doc... how long do I have to live? Seriously, can I edit and burn in HD?

Or... Can I edit in one format then render and burn in AVCHD. I don't care how long it takes to render. I usually do that overnight anyway. But editing in HD with the current setup is tedious.

The result you obtained from "Check3d.exe" is IMO "what one would expect" for that low-power "mobile" CPU (more at home in a budget laptop PC than a desktop). I suspect that the integrated AMD graphics are in fact pretty good, but the CPU itself lacks horsepower.

If you look in the verbose log file "Check3d.txt" it may give a clue as to what "validation errors" occurred - probably one of the drawing tests failed, but quite possibly not an issue with real-world use...

A suggestion that might make the video easier to edit:

• If the source material is full-HD AVCHD footage, drag each source file in turn into a new project, do not perform any edits on it and then export it (make movie) as an MPEG-2 file using one of the available "HD" presets (try "MPEG-2 | HDV 1080i" or "MPEG-2 | HD 1080i"
• Then, use those MPEG-2 files in your edit instead of the AVCHD originals.
• Finally, make your AVCHD DVD/Bluray disc
  

 The "HDV 1080i" preset has a lower bit rate than "HD 1080i", but does sacrifice a little horizontal resolution (1440 instead of 1920). But if disk space is tight, having slightly smaller files may be an advantage...

From what I remember, Studio 12 is quite capable of editing high-definition MPEG-2 on a PC having only a dual-core CPU, so with the quad-core AMD CPU (even though a "lightweight"), the editing experience may be considerably more pleasant!

FYI - screen shot shows the settings of the two MPEG-2 high-definition presets side-by-side

HTH
Richard

Yesterday I installed Studio 12 Ultimate  in Windows 10 Beta and was installed correctly. I cannot remember on how I installed it but I think I had to install it as "Run as Administrator". I think I had some minor issues but were solved with my graphics card update. My desktop is over 5 years old and is a 32 bit OS. I have not done any tests yet with all the Studio programs I installed yet. I also gave all programs of Studio to be run as administrator just in case problems occurred if not done so. I did not install the patch for Studio 12 Ultimate.

R_Vera:

Yesterday I installed Studio 12 Ultimate  in Windows 10 Beta and was installed correctly

Although PS12 has installed correctly. how does it run? IMO the thread starter would be more interested to know how it works on a slower system when editing and exporting full-HD AVCHD video - and if you encountered and solved any poor performance issues, what did you need to do?

Regards,
Richard

UPDATE: The editing process does work better with "background rendering" disabled. I still need to find a way to burn an AVCHD disc that doesn't jump and stutter every few seconds. But progress is progress! Incidentally, how can I decipher the 3Dcheck data? What am I looking for to see where the faults lie? And lastly, where can I go to learn more about the various project and file formats that are offered (NTSC Wide / Progressive, MPEG 1-2-4, etc.) I can try making projects and burning discs in each but that would be incredibly time consuming!  Thanks again for all the support!

"Although PS12 has installed correctly. how does it run?"

I just did phase I and I posted the results here.

steveromo:

UPDATE: The editing process does work better with "background rendering" disabled. I still need to find a way to burn an AVCHD disc that doesn't jump and stutter every few seconds. But progress is progress! Incidentally, how can I decipher the 3Dcheck data? What am I looking for to see where the faults lie? And lastly, where can I go to learn more about the various project and file formats that are offered (NTSC Wide / Progressive, MPEG 1-2-4, etc.) I can try making projects and burning discs in each but that would be incredibly time consuming!  Thanks again for all the support!

With regard to export issues - have you installed the 12.1 patch?

The Check3D results - probably the only useful bit is near the top

--- System rating ---
Overall rating             : passed (2.76)
SD Playback             : passed (1.67)
SD & video IO            : passed (4.67)
HD Playback             : passed (1.93)

--- System validation ---
Passed:            62
Errors:              13    (2 ,4 ,5 ,18 ,20 ,21 ,32 ,54 ,61 ,62 ,68 ,75 ,76 )
Warnings:          3    (16 ,33 ,34 )

In the figures from my laptop PC, in the system rating, I believe that the figures shown are ratios (compared with what the program regards as "what is necessary" for that kind of operation. The validation tests, many will fail or show warnings, even on a "good" system - I think those errors occur where video is transcoded from one format into another, and something ends up coming out slightly different to the original... Might affect hardware-accelerated transitions or effects of there was a big difference between input and output - would most likely be observed as a jump in brightness level or colour at the beginning/end of such a transition/effect.

To find out everything you could ever want to know about video formats, codecs etc (and many terabytes of stuff you didn't  ) I would suggest having a search on Wikipedia...

Regards,
Richard